Jan. 4, 2023 - Bannon's War Room
48:40
Participants
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Okay, welcome. | ||
| You're in the War Room. | ||
| It's Tuesday, 3 January, in the year of our Lord, 2023. | ||
| You're watching, you're seeing the floor of the House. | ||
| They just finished the third ballot in this historic day. | ||
| Has not happened for over a hundred years, or a hundred years, where they think they went to nine ballots over, I think it was three days. | ||
| We just finished the third ballot, and Kevin McCarthy lost another vote. | ||
| Byron Donalds from Florida, who I think has been pretty strongly in McCarthy's camp, voted, came on, I think he just called into Larry Kudlow's show, said that he was on CNN earlier saying, hey, you gotta get somebody to get to 218 that can close the deal. | ||
| I mean, this was a... | ||
| Pretty, although one vote, pretty big blow because he made the case that Kevin McCarthy couldn't get to 218 and he flipped his vote. | ||
| I think the preliminary is going to be Jeffries 212, Kevin McCarthy 202, and now 20 of the of the anti anybody but McCarthy vote. | ||
| And there's a lot of knives out and hostility people should know behind the scenes, a lot of arm twisting. | ||
| We've got a cold open we're going to play. | ||
| I really want to thank Real America's Voice for having this great shot. | ||
| of the house. Let me bring in Rudy Giuliani and I'm gonna get Boris Epstein, as soon as Boris is up, and we got Lauren Boebert's gonna call in. A lot of people, if we can get them on the phone, are gonna take them as they come. Rudy, you've been around a long time, sir. You haven't been around 100 years. This is pretty historic. We're in a, we're already finished the third ballot and we're no closer to getting something done than we were last night, sir. The longer it goes, | ||
|
unidentified
|
the obvious. For McCarthy to win the nomination, and I have to analogize it a little bit to the old convention, you and I are aware of, you got to keep growing on each ballot. So even though it's a split of only one vote, he'd have been a lot better off if he had picked up two votes to start creating some momentum. The problem is, unless | |
| they're fighting hard, no opposition. | ||
| But if McCarthy keeps losing votes, let's say the next one he loses four or five, that's when there'll be the discussion of opposition. | ||
| Reminds me a little bit of the Conclave picking a pope. | ||
| You're waiting for white smoke. | ||
| Hey, Rudy, hang on for one second. | ||
| I want to get Rudy's sound fixed because it's kind of coming in and out. | ||
| Let's get Boris. | ||
| We got Boris, I think, on the phone. | ||
| Let's bring in Boris Epstein. | ||
| Boris, can we reboot Rudy and try to get that audio to work? | ||
| Boris, we got the view there, thanks to Real America's Voice, got this beautiful shot of the house. | ||
| Right there, Boris, the drama's playing out in front of the American people and the world, but as you know, there's a lot more drama in the cloakroom right behind the scenes, where I hear, the quote is, and I'm taking this from one of the 20 that voted, has voted against McCarthy since the first round, he said, the knives are out now. | ||
| Boris Epstein, give us your assessment. | ||
| Steve, honored to be with you, honored to be with Apache. | ||
| Happy New Year to everybody. | ||
| Wishing everyone health and toughness, toughness in this year. | ||
| And we are starting with a tough battle in the House of Representatives, no doubt about it. | ||
| Very interesting to see what's going on now in the third battle, on the third ballot. | ||
| It's also a battle. | ||
| The perspective was that this may have never gone. | ||
| To the floor. | ||
| Now it's on the floor. | ||
| Now we're through three ballots and the expectation is that there's likely to be some sort of recess and then go back to conference and reconvene tomorrow. | ||
| A lot could change. | ||
| Is there a chance that Kevin McCarthy goes back to the holdouts and strikes a deal? | ||
| Sure, there's a chance of that. | ||
| Is there a chance that an alternative candidate is put up? | ||
| A thousand percent. | ||
| Alternative meaning neither McCarthy nor Jordan. | ||
| Could Jim Jordan continue to pick up, continue to pick up ballots? | ||
| Absolutely, as he did pick up with Byron Donalds, you know, just a few minutes ago. | ||
| So a lot happening. | ||
| And what's interesting about it is that, and Rudy alluded to this, the direction was important. | ||
| The direction of the vote was important. | ||
| And by Byron Donalds defecting and go after two votes for For Kevin McCarthy and going for Jim Jordan, that's definitely a signal. | ||
| Now, the flip side of that is no one followed. | ||
| None of the other McCarthy votes followed. | ||
| So, I actually did view, and I think this is what I spoke about, that the third ballot was going to be vital. | ||
| That could have been a ballot for major movement back to Kevin McCarthy. | ||
| That didn't occur, obviously. | ||
| So now, I think the next public move is going to be likely tomorrow. | ||
| Unless there's some sort of deal struck and there's a consensus candidate that comes out of this tonight. | ||
| So, exciting. | ||
| It's an exciting time. | ||
| It's a difficult time. | ||
| But it's also a time where now the strong, let's just be honest, a lot of the holdouts are top, top MAGA people. | ||
| Chip Roy, we have had a lot of disagreements with. | ||
| But his position on the omnibus, for example, Was absolutely spot-on. | ||
| There's other things that Chip Roy had disagreed on, and I always disagree with him, I think he just tweeted about it a few weeks ago. | ||
| But what you have... But this is, but this is, but this is about, we're going to Bovercron saying this is MAGA versus, this is MAGA versus the cartel, there's no doubt about it. | ||
| And you're adding, you know, Donald is a recent, is a recent convert. | ||
| But now this is MAGA and these people are, it looks like they're dug in. | ||
| The two We've got a little bit of Gates we're going to play, and we're going to play Chip Royce in a second, but Jim Jordan's nomination speech for McCarthy and Scalise's nomination speech for McCarthy for the second and third round, You're not incorrect. | ||
| You're not correct at all, and you're always giving signal to the posse. | ||
| That's all we do here. | ||
| Always signal for the posse, never noise. | ||
| vote for me. They did not say don't vote for me in a coming round. Am I am I incorrect on that? Was there was that signal not noise? You're not incorrect. | ||
| You're not correct at all. And you're always giving signal to the posse. That's all we do here. Always signal for the posse. Never noise. | ||
| Also, here's the other thing. That's pure math. You're going into this morning. You know, the special was that there were five hard notes. | ||
| Now, after three ballots, there's 19 hard notes, plus a defection in addition to the notes from Byron Donalds. | ||
| The numbers are different. | ||
| It's no longer, you know, five is almost close to the margin of error. | ||
| When you're talking about 1920, and again, going toward the notes, You're four times, no, five times the margin of error. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a significant gap. | |
| And how does the gap play out? | ||
| I've seen some actual social media, something where there could be, you know, over a hundred votes. | ||
| Do I think that's going to happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| I think for the best of the country, this is going to get worked out. | ||
| And there's going to be some consensus arrangement worked out, but it's got to be one that's workable long term. | ||
| for the American people. | ||
| Workable long-term for the American people, which means we've got to stand up to McConnell. | ||
| We've got to stand up to Biden. | ||
| We've got to stand up to Chuck Schumer. | ||
| We've got to fight for America and fight for our magical values. | ||
| And we've... | ||
| McCarthy's pushing right now, the McCarthy guys are pushing that there's some blue-dog Democrats, if they even exist anymore. | ||
| Supposedly some centrist Blue Dog Democrats are in discussions with moderate Republicans about putting together a coalition government, a coalition in the House. | ||
| Is that totally absurdity, or do you think that's a real threat? | ||
| Because that's being pushed now by the networks. | ||
| I think it's coming from McCarthy camp, is that if you don't get on board the Kevin train, you're going to have a coalition government. | ||
| Boris Epstein. | ||
| Well, I'm pretty familiar with the Israeli model. | ||
| And with the coalition government, if you have a tiny defection that doesn't work, so now if you have, say, 20, for easy math, who are dug in, those 20 are not going to go for a coalition government. | ||
| So how is that ever going to work out? | ||
| Remember, to get speaker, you've got to get a majority of those voting. | ||
| So unless the plan is for hundreds to vote present or to not vote and not show up, that's just not going to work. | ||
| The model of government here is not the Israeli model. | ||
| We don't have the first past the post. | ||
| We don't have ten parties with four smaller parties making a lot of difference. | ||
| We don't have the British model either. | ||
| So I don't see how that works out. | ||
| I think the only answer here is for Republicans. | ||
| To go back into recess and do hard work. | ||
| And Byron Donaldson actually put out a very good tweet on it. | ||
| Democracy can be messy. | ||
| So go back and frankly, just figure it out. | ||
| That's what MAGA wants. | ||
| That's what the MAGA base wants. | ||
| That's what Americans want. | ||
| They fired Nancy Pelosi, so now it's incumbent upon Republicans to figure it out. | ||
| And the way that's figured out, the only way it can work, is if we have a speaker and a leadership team That's going to fight and say no every single time to the federal overreach from the Democrats, to the weaponization of law enforcement, to targeting of political opponents, and to all the woke, radical nonsense, the green, everything that's being pushed by the Democrats. | ||
| So what do we expect to see from here on out? | ||
| I think there's going to be a lot, a lot of wrangling today throughout for the rest of the day and through the night. | ||
| Tomorrow morning, you'll see more voting. | ||
| And this next ballot is going to be undoubtedly vital, because moving on that ballot, one way or another, is going to tell you what happens. | ||
| Now, is there a chance that the candidates for Speaker tomorrow are totally different than the ones today? | ||
| Yes, of course there's a chance, because remember, last time this happened, Boehner and Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan, all that moved around a million times before it settled where it was. | ||
| And also, I do want to remind the posse The Paul Ryan option was one of the worst things to have happened to the Republican Party in our history. | ||
| In our history. | ||
| That is something that is unacceptable and we cannot have anything close to it as a result of this election. | ||
| You know, supposedly McCarthy told people this morning that he was going to stay on the floor and vote this out, and eventually it was a test of wills. | ||
| They'd go all night and they would break the MAGA, essentially the MAGA Republicans, that eventually they would start cratering and say, OK, there's, you know, so many votes for you. | ||
| We've got 20, 30, 40, but we'll start, he'll start peeling them off. | ||
| He would not go into conference. | ||
| They felt in conference he could get bled out because it got very personal and nasty this morning. | ||
| in the conference and they would didn't want to expose McCarthy that McCarthy I think actually told somebody he would fight it on the floor and if he had to leave the floor if they put forward a motion and voted because that would mean his guys were voting to go in conference I heard he said he would resign from Congress and just walk away do you think right now from what you're hearing they're prepared to to have only just one more vote and then go back into conference? | ||
| Because I'm gonna tell you right now, we got this great shot Real America's Voice has on the, for the radio and podcast audience, of people talking on the floor and chatting. | ||
| They're very, you know, amical, friendly chitchat on the floor in front of the cameras. | ||
| In the cloakroom, there's wheeling and dealing going on, Boris. | ||
| I'm hearing the knives are out, right? | ||
| That they're threatening payback For the recalcitrant 20. | ||
| What are you hearing about that, and what are you hearing about any possibility of going into conference? | ||
| Well, it does appear, based on reporting in just the last few minutes, that there is a push to go to adjourn. | ||
| Now, you need 218 votes to adjourn, but it's a question of what the Democrats do and whether they want to stay there all night, too. | ||
| So, if they adjourn, that means that they're going back from the House floor, and it's a conference. | ||
| Now, here's something interesting. | ||
| Who's been a supporter of Kevin McCarthy coming out, said that, I think, you know, eventually, he expects McCarthy to lose support as this drags on. | ||
| So, again, these are all, you know, signs. | ||
| Right now, what we have is very clear. | ||
| We have a group of 20 who, you know, 19 now plus 120, and most of them are hardline. | ||
| And as you said, it's an absolute knife fight. | ||
| Now, if the reports of threats And being stripped of committees, et cetera, all true. | ||
| I will tell you, politically, that's a mistake. | ||
| Threatening elected members of Congress for political reasons is a mistake. | ||
| That's not the way things get done anymore. | ||
| Maybe they have, but they didn't in the past. | ||
| But that's just not the way things get done. | ||
| And definitely not the way things get done with a lot of these members who, people like Eli Crane and Chip Roy, who I've disagreed with a million times. | ||
| You know, people who have been very, who are tough and recalcitrant themselves, but are proud to be so, I'm not sure that they respond well to threats. | ||
| And I think most, you know, overwhelmingly, right? | ||
| If you have the strength to run for Congress, you're not going to be the kind that responds well to threats and committees about your personally and honorably held beliefs. | ||
| I'm not saying they're right or wrong. | ||
| I'm saying that threatening to change their beliefs is not the way to go. | ||
| What is your, what's your social media so people are going to follow you? | ||
| Steve, honored to be here, honored to talk about this issue. | ||
| This is a historic moment. | ||
| There's no two ways about it. | ||
| Everybody's got to be tuned in all the time. | ||
| My information, my website, BorisCP.com, hot on BorisCP.com, hot on Getter at BorisCP, on Twitter at BorisCP, hot on Twitter social at Boris, hottest on the gram, Boris underscore Epstein. | ||
| Stay strong, God bless, and I'll talk to you tomorrow. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Remember, they're fighting for the MAGA agenda. | ||
| That's what this is about. | ||
| As Russ Vogt said so eloquently this morning, this is about the cartel versus, this is 12 years coming, always from the Tea Party days. | ||
| This is the populist nationalist movement and its agenda versus the cartel. | ||
| Short commercial break. | ||
| We've got Congressman Lauren Boebert, as soon as we can track her down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have got Rudy Giuliani all next in The War Room. | |
| No. | ||
| No, I think we have to start working together. | ||
| I mean, I look at states like Arizona right now. | ||
| I mean, look at Arizona. | ||
| The top vote-getter in the whole state was a Republican. | ||
| She got 1,375,000 votes. | ||
| And the other Republicans that were running in that state, you know who didn't vote for them? | ||
| Republicans. | ||
| So if we're so hateful towards each other that other Republicans won't vote for us, then we're doing exactly what the Democrats want, right? | ||
| And so this scorched earth I'm going to take on every other Republican instead of focusing on who voters want us to focus on, which is the Democrats. | ||
| Remember the Democrats who are leaving our border open. | ||
| They're the ones who kept our kids out of school. | ||
| They're the ones who have allowed crime to run rampant in our streets. | ||
| That is the Democrat Party. | ||
| So as long as we're fighting each other, we are not keeping our eye on the prize. | ||
| And I think we have to get the speakership settled, and we have to go forward if we're going to be successful in 2024 as a united party. | ||
| And right now, this exemplifies exactly what the Democrats want to see from our party. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The lead on Jake Tapper. | |
| We are following the messy, chaotic, first time in a century floor fight for the House Speaker's gavel. | ||
| Republican leader Kevin McCarthy becoming the first majority party nominee for the Speakership to fail on the first and it appears second ballot since 1923. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The House clerk is trying to call the House to order. | |
| Let's listen in. | ||
| For what purpose does a gentleman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
| Place a name and a nomination, Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| So this is what the chamber looks like when we're actually debating and the bodies are in the chairs. | ||
| How many times have we been down here giving speeches and there's not a soul in the chamber? | ||
| Yet this is what it takes to get 435 people in the chamber and have an actual debate. | ||
| The American people are watching, and that's a good thing. | ||
| What we're doing is exercising our rights to vote and have a debate and have a discussion about the future of this country through the decision of choosing a speaker. | ||
| This is not personal. | ||
| It's not. | ||
| This is about the future of the country. | ||
| This is about the direction of the country. | ||
| American people who are looking at this body and wondering why we can pass 1.7 trillion dollar bills that are unpaid for. | ||
| They can just slide in 45 billion dollars for Ukraine but not pay for it. | ||
| 40 billion dollars for emergency spending and not pay for it. | ||
| 10% increase in defense spending. | ||
| 6% increase in non-defense spending and not pay for it. | ||
| And not do a thing except put language in a bill that prohibits our ability to use the money to secure the border. | ||
| That bill gets rammed through, and we know exactly how it gets rammed through. | ||
| Because the defense world and the non-defense world come together and say, you know what? | ||
| We're going to cut a deal, and we'll all go to the mics, and we're all going to give speeches, and the American people are the big losers. | ||
| That's what happens. | ||
| We know that's what happens. | ||
| The Rules Committee sits up there and passes a bill, sends it to the floor, and we have no debate on the floor of this body. | ||
| We haven't been able to offer an amendment on the floor of this body since May of 2016. | ||
| The former leader and I have discussed this right here. | ||
| That's true. | ||
| But the fact is, this place has to change. | ||
| It has to change. | ||
| And the change comes by either adopting rules and procedures that will make us actually do our job, or it comes from leadership. | ||
| And people ask me, what do you want? | ||
| I want the tools, or I want the leadership to stop the swamp from running over the average American every single day. | ||
| We can't keep doing this. | ||
| I'm going to sit here until we figure out how to stop spending money we don't have. | ||
| I don't want any more empty promises. | ||
| I don't want any more, oh, don't worry, trust us, we'll do it. | ||
| I want to know that we're going to be able to exercise our rights as members of this body to stand up for the American people and actually fix this country. | ||
| And it's not going to happen when we use our men and women in uniform and defense And wrap ourselves around that, and then spend more money that we don't have, weakening that defense, weakening our country in the process. | ||
| But that's what we just did. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, I am asking for us to come together and figure out how to solve these problems. | ||
| And to do that, I'm going to do what I did my very first act as a member of Congress, or as a congressman-elect, and nominate Jim Jordan for Speaker. | ||
| Now, Jim has said he doesn't want that nomination, and Jim has been down here nominating Kevin, and I respect that. | ||
| And again, I have no personal animus towards Kevin. | ||
| And I've worked for the last two months to try to figure out how to get the rules to make this place better, and we've made progress. | ||
| But we do not have the tools or the leadership yet to stop the swamp from rolling over the American people. | ||
| Jim has been doing it. | ||
| He has a track record of doing it. | ||
| And for those reasons, I am nominating Jim Jordan from Ohio for Speaker of the House of Representatives. | ||
| Okay, welcome. | ||
| Right now, the word is, Jake Sherman of Punchbowl is reporting that House Republicans are working in the cloakroom and behind the scenes to maybe come forward and adjourn this before a fourth ballot. | ||
| Uh, to convene overnight. | ||
| I think the conference and to get back at it tomorrow morning. | ||
| I want to bring in Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| That was Chip Roy. | ||
| The three best moments of the day from the speech. | ||
| Chip Roy's nomination of Jim Jordan. | ||
| Jim Jordan's nomination of McCarthy, where he really made the case for himself as speaker. | ||
| And Matt Gaetz's later, his also nomination for Jim Jordan the first time in the second round, which surprised everybody. | ||
| Rudy, this is not your first rodeo. | ||
| Tell people what's going on right here. | ||
| Can Kevin McCarthy muscle his way through now that they've increased? | ||
| He's got 20 votes against him. | ||
| Can he muscle this through? | ||
| If they go to conference, is that the end of McCarthy's attempt at becoming speaker? | ||
| Or do you think behind the scenes he twists enough arms, cuts enough deals, pleads with enough people to either do it later tonight or bring it back tomorrow morning, sir? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm going on instinct here, Steve. | |
| I think that group of Whatever you want to call it, 20 or eight or five or whatever. | ||
| I think they have thought this out. | ||
| I think they've got an act two and an act three and an act four to follow. | ||
| And I don't think it includes, uh, speaker McCarthy, a speaker McCarthy. | ||
| So I guess what I'm telling you is, uh, unless surprisingly he picks up a vote or two on the next vote, uh, it's over to him. | ||
| I think. | ||
| And I also think that although they haven't revealed it, we know these people. | ||
| These are very smart people. | ||
| This wasn't done just on a guess, like we're going to come up with somebody as a candidate. | ||
| They've got somebody in mind that might not even be the first one that comes out of there. | ||
| I think there's a plan here, I guess what I'm saying. | ||
| And I think right now it would seem to me I don't get how he's going to turn these people and they're going to start voting for him. | ||
| They're pretty far out there now. | ||
| And I don't think they would have gotten themselves that far out without a plan. | ||
| Rudy, you were the president's lawyer for the first impeachment effort. | ||
| You've worked very closely with Jordan. | ||
| Jordan is obviously revered by the war room. | ||
| Yeah, I love him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jordan is my favorite member of Congress. | |
| The way you put him up on a pedestal, if you want. | ||
| Well, tell us about that, because that's a big endorsement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Tell us about Jim Jordan, your working relationship with him. | |
| I work with these people very, very closely, as you know, going way back before anybody Even knew I was involved. | ||
| And I can tell you the ones who are a hundred percent. | ||
| Gates is a hundred percent. | ||
| Jordan's a hundred percent. | ||
| Not 98, not 97. | ||
| A hundred percent. | ||
| Not just a hundred percent loyal to Trump. | ||
| A hundred percent they understand what's happening to our country. | ||
| Some people kind of get it. | ||
| Some of them don't get it completely. | ||
| Others have their own agendas. | ||
| But one of the reasons I was okay with McCarthy is because Jordan is okay with McCarthy. | ||
| I trust him completely. | ||
| But of course, I'd be much happier with the real thing. | ||
| Rudy, one of the things they laid out today that's so important is a kind of discrepancy, although McCarthy has come and said we're going to have a joint committee on weaponization of government. | ||
| Is there anybody better in your mind than going after the administrative state and the deep state than Jim Jordan? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| No. | ||
| I mean, the only thing is, I almost wouldn't want to waste time with the Speaker. | ||
| He's such a good investigator. | ||
| And he has no fear. | ||
| Now, that's also true of about eight or ten of them. | ||
| I mean, think of the great job they did during both impeachments. | ||
| I'm talking about Biggs and Bishop and Gates. | ||
| I mean, they were our go-to people, right? | ||
| I mean, they were, they were our go-to people, right? | ||
| When I, when I, those were the ones I could count on and he could. | ||
| Rudy, could you hang on for a second? | ||
| Because I want to hold you through the break. | ||
| I know you finished your show. | ||
| If you can just hold on, we're going to go to break. | ||
| Oh, yeah, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Happy to. | |
| Just want to put in a second, okay. | ||
| What you're watching is the, there are, we just finished round three of the ballots, the third ballot, and we're going to go to either a round four, or they've got to put forward a motion to convene. | ||
| That will need 218 votes. | ||
| If they convene, they're either going to go into conference tonight, which I assume they would, or they're going to go into conference early tomorrow morning like they did today. | ||
| And I understand that that conference got very personal and nasty. | ||
| You saw a little bit of it on the show with Congressman MTG going after Boebert and General Perry and of course Matt Gaetz. | ||
| In fact, Congressman Boebert reached out to me after she saw the clip and wanted specifically to come on and to answer those, I don't know if they're even allegations, but what was said. | ||
| Because she said she was just pushing the overall agenda for people. | ||
| We don't know. | ||
| We may be going to a fourth round. | ||
| What we know is that another vote is going against McCarthy. | ||
| So the populist movement, the Trump movement, versus the cartel is still a fight. | ||
| If you cut on any other channel, what you hear is non-stop about the disorganization, the chaos, all of it. | ||
| I think it looks pretty organized. | ||
| They had a plan. | ||
| Put Jordan up right away as the counter to McCarthy, and that's where we sit. | ||
| We got Rudy Giuliani, we got Caroline Wren, we're trying to get Congresswoman Boebert, and a host of others. | ||
| Anybody that can get off the floor and call, we're going to take a short break. | ||
|
unidentified
|
break back in a moment. | |
| The House is adjourned with no speaker selected in three rounds. | ||
| We're joined now by Congressman Lauren Boebert of Colorado. | ||
| Congressman, can you give us an update on where we stand? | ||
| It's been a historic day in the Capitol, particularly in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Can you walk us through what happened? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure, Steve. | |
| Well, first of all, this is a very historic day. | ||
| We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change the way Washington, D.C. | ||
| is operated. | ||
| If you were to ask the American voter if they're happy with the way Congress runs, they would probably tell you, hell no, we're not. | ||
| But right now, we have now completed three ballots for the speaker's vote. | ||
| And no one has received a majority. | ||
| Uh, Kevin McCarthy does not have the vote at this time. | ||
| And, um, the current, um, opposing Republican candidate, um, that has been nominated is Jim Jordan. | ||
| Now, Jim Jordan, uh, he. | ||
| At this time says he doesn't want to accept that, but in my view, uh, George Washington didn't want to be president, but he did what was right for the country. | ||
| And we have to stand, um, for what we believe in, what we promised the American voter. | ||
| And Steve, I want to make this really clear to you. | ||
| I want the Republican conference to be united. | ||
| And I have been working every day for months to make sure that that happens. | ||
| And yesterday we had a path forward to walk out of here, united with leader McCarthy being supportive of that path. | ||
| We. | ||
| We could have been. | ||
| But instead, as a part of those discussions with Leader McCarthy, repeatedly he said that he wanted Freedom Caucus members to participate on more key committees, but said he's had a difficult time getting them there. | ||
| So we responded with recommendations on who to put where. | ||
| He requested a commitment for border security, term limits, energy and debt reduction bills to be put forward, which most, if not all of us, ran on and publicly support. | ||
| And Kevin McCarthy had an opportunity to be speaker on the first ballot with a gavel in hand, and it was my sincere hope that we could get there, which is exactly what I discussed in my meeting with McCarthy yesterday, but he firmly rejected the offer of 218 votes. | ||
| It seemed like what you put forward was pretty straightforward and kind of what the people voted for in November. | ||
| I don't think you've asked for any outrageous request. | ||
| What was it that he just said he couldn't give you guys? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the problem is we have been in these negotiations since the summer. | |
| We went to Kevin and we were dismissed in the summer because he thought we were going to have this massive red wave and he would not need our votes. | ||
| So the meeting wasn't taken seriously. | ||
| He didn't want to follow up with requests that we had to important rule changes. | ||
| And then as soon as we saw how slim this majority is, that is when he started listening. | ||
| And he has implemented many of the rule changes that we have put in place. | ||
| And now he proudly brags about them and says that he supports them and acts like it's his idea, which is fine. | ||
| Take it. | ||
| Run with it. | ||
| I'm not sure why he flat out turned this negotiation down. | ||
| I had a fear that maybe he had had a deal with the Democrats that was cut, but after the third ballot, I don't see that happening. | ||
| But it was very reasonable what we asked for. | ||
| It was not a selfish ask. | ||
| There were no personal requests that are out of the ordinary. | ||
| He asked us what committees Freedom Caucus members want to be placed on and we provided that list to him. | ||
| He said his problem was Freedom Caucus wants to be on the Oversight Committee and on Judiciary and he has a hard time spreading them out. | ||
| So we did that and said here are some places that we could be and be effective so we have a strong conservative presence on these committees to make sure that we are tackling the spending in Washington, D.C., that we are securing the border, that we are having the investigation, and so much more. | ||
| And he flat out rejected that proposal. | ||
| Okay, here's one of the questions I have is that you haven't really been publicly in the I mean, you put out a week ago you had a red line and the red line was about the motion to vacate. | ||
| Talk about your journey because now it looks like you're one of the lead negotiators or one of the leaders of this kind of movement that are representing the MAGA policies and kind of the MAGA point of view, the MAGA angle of attack. | ||
| How did that happen? | ||
| Because you haven't really taken that public A stance on all this until it looked like this weekend. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| So I have not been public on where I was because I was trying to get people to a place of unity. | ||
| And I've been working behind the scenes for months to do exactly that. | ||
| Negotiating the rules changes, negotiating the policy that we're going to put forward to save our country. | ||
| And I had finally got to a point where we had 218 votes for Kevin McCarthy. | ||
| It was a clean deal and he refused to take it. | ||
| But this motion to vacate, that was the one thing that I was public on. | ||
| This is my hard line, single member motion to vacate. | ||
| This is our check and balance on the third in line to the presidency of the United States. | ||
| You cannot demand more responsibility and take away accountability. | ||
| This is our accountability mechanism to have a check on the Speaker of the House. | ||
| It's not something that is ever used, but it's there as an enforcement mechanism in case things do go wrong. | ||
| Nancy Pelosi was the first speaker. | ||
| to take this away. The House has had this for nearly two centuries and Kevin McCarthy wanted to follow her precedence and I said that is unacceptable. | ||
| It wasn't until today, Steve, that a staffer of Kevin McCarthy came out of conference and said, we'll give you the single member motion to vacate. But the problem is that's where the negotiations really start because that's when there's accountability so they matter. | ||
| That's how we know we're going to get a secure border bill, an energy bill, a term limits bill brought to the floor, and mechanisms to reduce our nation's debt, and so much more. | ||
| It was today that they said, okay, okay, we'll give it to you. | ||
| But the other things were left off the table. | ||
| Now we've been threatened by other members that we're going to not serve on committees at all, simply for standing up for what we believe in and trying to get good policy out of the United States Congress. | ||
| And this is unacceptable to me. | ||
| And I've tried my best for several months behind the scenes to get to a place of unity and Kevin McCarthy is showing that he does not want that unity. | ||
| He does not want to accept these common sense offers and pitting members against one another. | ||
| And I still want to find that place of unity. | ||
| Maybe it's with Jim Jordan. | ||
| Maybe it's with a different candidate. | ||
| Maybe we end up with Lee Zeldin, who really won us the majority of the House. | ||
| Or maybe it's a Kevin Hearn or a Jim Banks or a Mike Johnson. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Kevin could come to the Freedom Caucus, these members of the Freedom Caucus and others who have increasingly shown their opposition today, and he may say, okay, this is how we'll run things, and we will have the tools in place to actually govern the way we campaign. | ||
| So there's a lot there. | ||
| Let me just go back. | ||
| First off, are you saying now, because I got some text messages from some people who were part of the original 19 that said during the second round and before third that quote-unquote the knives are out, particularly in the cloakroom. | ||
| Are you saying you were threatened by members that you're going to be thrown off committees because of your principled stand on this? | ||
| That people are actually saying you're going to lose committee assignments, you're going to lose these type of things that you need as a congressman? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is absolutely correct. | |
| Today, Mike Johnson stood up in conference and, excuse me, Mike Rogers stood up in conference today and he said if you vote against Kevin McCarthy today on the floor, you will not have committee assignments. | ||
| And Kevin McCarthy did not go against that. | ||
| In fact, he stood up and affirmed it. | ||
| He said that the voters elect their representatives in their district and the conference elects who goes onto committees. | ||
| He affirmed what Mike Rogers said, that if we oppose Kevin McCarthy, we will not have committee assignments, which is stripping millions of voices away from the United States House of Representatives who deserve representation, who deserve a strong voice, who deserve an ally and need good policies to go to the floor to fix the chaos that the Democrats have caused for the past two years. | ||
| Hollett. | ||
| Mike Rogers, was this in the conference? | ||
| When you were in the conference this morning, he actually stood up and said that if you stand on the floor today and vote against McCarthy, you will be stripped of your committee assignments. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He said that emphatically, and Kevin McCarthy affirmed it. | |
| What, uh, but you just said right there, if Kevin McCarthy, if you guys go into conference tonight or tomorrow, if Kevin McCarthy would come back and agree to the, to the rules packages and other things that you put forward, is there a way that you think that with the vote now with Donald's joining you at a 20, it looks like he's going the wrong direction. | ||
| Is there a way for Kevin McCarthy to claw his way back here? | ||
| Is there, is there a path for Kevin McCarthy to become speaker? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I personally don't see a path. | |
| I don't see him accepting this deal that was offered, and with the increasing opposition, it is getting more and more difficult for him. | ||
| And, you know, Jim Jordan stood up and gave a nominating speech for Kevin McCarthy, and really, his nominating speech just affirmed why he needs to be Speaker of the House. | ||
| This is someone who actually puts America first, who is a proven fighter, who is principled, And we'll put forward the policies that we need right now. | ||
| But no, I think it's becoming more and more difficult for Kevin to get that gavel. | ||
| Last thing, have you asked in any of these negotiations, have you ever asked for anything for yourself personally? | ||
| It's always been for the team, for the Congress, for the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, every member of Congress requests which committee assignments they would like to have. | |
| And there were certainly some committee assignments that we had suggested, because Kevin said he doesn't know where Freedom Caucus members want to go, other than oversight and judiciary. | ||
| And so there were several members who were listed for committee assignments. | ||
| But look, Steve, every member of Congress requests committee assignments. | ||
| It says where they are going to be the most beneficial to serve their districts and to serve our country. | ||
| Even Marjorie Taylor Greene has requested to be on Rules and Oversight Committee and was granted that by Kevin McCarthy. | ||
| So this isn't anything that's abnormal. | ||
| This is something that all 435 members of Congress go to their leaders and request. | ||
| Congressman, we've got about a minute. | ||
| You have to bounce. | ||
| Anything in closing? | ||
| What should people be looking for to this vast audience for tonight and for tomorrow morning before you guys reconvene? | ||
| What should people be looking for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I really just believe that this process is working as our founders intended. | |
| We're supposed to debate. | ||
| We're supposed to use our votes, not just grant them. | ||
| I'm optimistic. | ||
| History will show that we are on the right side of the argument, and the country will be better off for sticking to our principles and the agenda that we were elected to fight for. | ||
| I'm very proud to stand with the other 19 members who say, let's get together and debate. | ||
| The entire House of Representatives was convened together under in one room today. This is not something that I have seen as a member of Congress. | ||
| And it was a beautiful thing to watch the debate and to be there together actually casting meaningful votes. So I would tell the American people to remain optimistic. | ||
| I am your happy warrior. | ||
| And at the end of the day, we are going to do what is best for the country. | ||
| As long as it takes, we are going to get this right. | ||
| Congressman Boebert, what's your social media? | ||
| What are your coordinates, your website? | ||
| People can follow you tonight and tomorrow. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, my Twitter is at Lauren Boebert and at rep Lauren Boebert. | |
| And on Facebook, it's Lauren Boebert for Congress. | ||
| My website is laurenforfreedom.com. | ||
| There certainly are a lot of attacks. | ||
| Kevin McCarthy has our donors calling us and, you know, he's got a well-organized machine when it comes to the fundraising ties and the lobbyists. | ||
| And so the claws are definitely out when it comes to that. | ||
| But this is just another thing that shows who he is bought by. | ||
| It's not the American people, it's not Main Street, it's K Street and the lobbyists. | ||
| And this is one of the main things that needs to change in Washington, D.C. | ||
| We need to represent the American people and care more about what they think than the lobbyists in Washington, D.C. | ||
| Congressman Boebert, honored to have you on here. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Short break, back in a second. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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| For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida rise? | ||
| To nominate a candidate for Speaker of the House. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Well sometimes we have to do jobs that we don't really want to do. | ||
| And sometimes we have to do jobs that we are called to do. | ||
| And so, my colleagues, I rise to nominate the most talented, hardest-working member of the Republican conference who just gave a speech with more vision than we have ever heard from the alternative. | ||
| I'm nominating Jim Jordan. | ||
| Jim Jordan is humble. | ||
| Perhaps today, humble to a fault. | ||
| Maybe the right person for the job of Speaker of the House isn't someone who wants it so bad. | ||
| Maybe the right person for the job of Speaker of the House isn't someone who has sold shares of themselves for more than a decade to get it. | ||
| Jim Jordan is the right person for Speaker of the House because he is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who have corrupted this place and corrupted this nation under the leadership of both Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| Maybe Jim Jordan would be the right person for Speaker of the House because he wouldn't fight us when we try to get a term limits bill on the floor. | ||
| Maybe Jim Jordan would be the right person because he wouldn't fight us when we try to put a balanced budget on the floor and vote for it and maybe Jim Jordan is the right person because he would endorse the plan that was built by the Texas delegation to finally secure our border. | ||
| Mr. Jordan said in his nomination that there are certain bills that We have to pass to fix the problem. | ||
| The challenge is, the alternative has been someone voting for the very bills that have caused these problems. | ||
| Mr. Jordan says that we cannot accept legislation like the omnibus, and I fully agree, and if Jim Jordan were Speaker of the House, if he were the leader of the Republican team, we wouldn't have that circumstance, choking the economy of our country, increasing inflation, and diminishing the prospects of a better life. | ||
| for our fellow Americans. | ||
| And finally, Mr. Jordan said we must engage in rigorous oversight. | ||
| Every one of my Republican colleagues knows that the person who can lead that oversight effort, who works on it every day, who has the skill and the talent and the will, is Jim Jordan. | ||
| I'm nominating him and I'm voting for him. | ||
| Okay, welcome back. | ||
| Matt Gaetz and you saw when he rolled out this plan weeks ago and people laughed at him right there on the world stage. | ||
| That's called hitting your mark. | ||
| That was a magnificent and just what two and a half minutes to summarize the Jim Jordan and why he would be the best guy to be Speaker of the House. | ||
| Just a magnificent speech. | ||
| They've adjourned and let me tell you what's going on in Washington right now. | ||
| It is crunch time. | ||
| It's going to get very nasty. | ||
| Heard Boebert this morning. | ||
| They said we're going to strip you You've just come in from Colorado or Michigan, wherever you've fought like crazy. | ||
| You've gotten into Congress. | ||
| You're going to get some assignments so you can tell the folks back home what you're working on. | ||
| We're going to strip you. | ||
| If you stand up on the floor of the House in front of the world, And say that you're going to vote for somebody besides Kevin McCarthy. | ||
| We're going to strip you because we're going to win. | ||
| We're going to strip you of your committee assignments. | ||
| That's why the original 19 that is a profiles. | ||
| Those are profiles in courage 20 and all the others too, but that's really remember it was the hard five knows the 14 with the with the letter the signatories and and then Lauren Bobert and others that were working behind the scenes that just really stepped up today. | ||
| So we promised you drama and tension and it's only getting worse right now We'll be up on get early this evening put this forward because this is high stakes of poker and it's going to get very nasty I can tell you in the cloakroom This afternoon way saw the the pats in the back and the glad handing up in the foreground It's got very nasty behind the scenes and it's going to get a lot nastier. | ||
| Remember this is for our Essentially, command by negation. | ||
| Whoever controls the House has command by negation on the Biden regime and this government. | ||
| And that's why we're, this is for all the marvels. | ||
| Carmichael, I want you to hear for a couple minutes. | ||
| Here's why. | ||
| Over the holidays, the most important thing that the posse needs is to take care of themselves and their own health. | ||
| Particularly situations we've seen over the last couple of days. | ||
| And by the way, we're going to have Dr. Ryan Cole in the next hour explain that. | ||
| Salty is fantastic, particularly for your cholesterol. | ||
| Tell us about why, why do people, why should a posse get it and how did they get it with this great special offer that you've got? | ||
| Steve, thanks again for having me on and thank you for the work you do. | ||
| This truly is a time of high drama. | ||
| And here we are at the beginning of the year. | ||
| We have New Year's resolutions that we try to keep. | ||
| Some of them are more difficult than others. | ||
| Well, I want to give your, I want to give the posse one that I've been keeping for 18 years and it has helped my health and that is to take soul tea, two soft gels of soul tea a day. | ||
| Steve, I don't know if you knew Dory Munson or not, but Dory Munson was a conservative talk radio host in Seattle and he just passed away from a heart attack at age 61. | ||
| Didn't have any signs of cardiac problems. | ||
| And this is what happens. | ||
| 50% of the people who have a heart attack die on the very first heart attack. | ||
| And it's so important that we take care of our hearts and take care of our cardiovascular system. | ||
| And the way to do that is to take Soul Tea. | ||
| And the way to get Soul Tea is to go to warroomhealth.com. | ||
| That's warroomhealth.com. | ||
| And enter the code warroom at checkout. | ||
| And here's what that does for you. | ||
| That means on your first order, You'll get three bottles and for a price of only $29.95. | ||
| And that's a huge savings. | ||
| And it's about 50% off. | ||
| And that's for the first shipment of your subscription. | ||
| And then every subscription order after that, you're getting three bottles for the price of two. | ||
| And that's every 90 days. | ||
| It's 70 cents a day. | ||
| Think about that. | ||
| 70 cents a day for your heart health. | ||
| And all you have to do is enter the code WAROOM at checkout. | ||
| So Steve, I encourage the posse to go to waroomhealth.com, waroomhealth.com, and use the code WAROOM at checkout, and take care of yourself, make a New Year's resolution to take care of yourself and your spouse. | ||
| You gotta take care of yourself, and here's why. | ||
| This is the first real Workday of the Year, and look how tense it is. | ||
| The tension couldn't be higher. | ||
| And I'm telling you right now, behind the scenes in Washington, D.C., it's only going to get worse. | ||
| Kromp, thank you so much. | ||
| Look forward to seeing you back here in the next couple of days. | ||
| I just want to tell you, for this vast audience we have tonight, we're going to take a short break. | ||
| We're going to continue with Congressman Bob Good. | ||
| is going to join us. | ||
| We've got John Fund from the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| We've got Mike Davis is going to join us. | ||
| Others. | ||
| The stakes couldn't be higher. | ||
| The tension couldn't be higher. |
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